Quick Review》Why Taiwan is not afraid of "Huang Huang"

Huida CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. (Bloomberg)

[Reporter Liao Jianing/Taipei Report] Huang Renxun recently confessed to an extramarital affair. The case also involved a Chinese female spy, which raised national security concerns and dragged down Huida's stock price, making investors "Renxun Huang." There are rumors in the market that Huida's board of directors is preparing to replace Huang Renxun. The outside world is worried that if Huang Renxun, who has always been friendly to Taiwan, leaves the position of CEO of Huida, it may affect the supply chain cooperation between Taiwanese factories. In fact, even if Huida replaces Huang Renxun's position, Huida's development of AI (artificial intelligence) will still rely on the support of Taiwan's complete supply chain ecosystem. Now Huida has not only chosen to set up an R&D center in Taiwan, but also invested more in Taiwan's first Huida overseas headquarters, and the logistics operation center has already moved to Taiwan. Not only Huida, but also major technology companies such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have come to Taiwan to set up logistics centers and R&D bases.

Minister of Economic Affairs Gong Mingxin pointed out today that almost only Taiwan can produce and ship high-end AI servers in the world. "As long as Huida still wants to go in the direction of AI, it must cooperate with Taiwan. This is what we are proud of. The best supply chain is with us, and we must continue to control this supply chain."

Looking back at the completion process of Huida's logistics operation center in Taiwan, in the past Huida only purchased components from Taiwanese factories, assembled finished products, and finally tested and shipped them at the Hong Kong logistics center. Later, in view of the fact that more and more supply chain manufacturers it cooperated with were in Taiwan, Huida proposed to the Ministry of Economic Affairs many years ago that it wanted to locate the logistics center in Taiwan. Huida was concerned that Taiwan's tax system at that time was not as good as Hong Kong's. However, Taiwan has everything good, including chip advantages, high-quality talents, intellectual property rights, good infrastructure, supply chain integrity and policy transparency. More importantly, the information security provided by the non-red supply chain that produces AI servers in Taiwan. "Assembled in Taiwan, it can be sold all over the world, which is Taiwan's niche." The deduction is that Taiwan is taxed more heavily than Hong Kong.

At that time, the Ministry of Economic Affairs was thinking that if Huida Logistics Center was located in Hong Kong, Taiwan would not get any tax revenue. If Huida Logistics Center came to Taiwan, it would not only increase tax revenue, but also attract Huida to purchase all the required goods in Taiwan. Taiwanese factories would definitely benefit. The supply chain would not only be more complete, but also strengthen Taiwan's brand image. Buying high-end AI servers from Taiwan would not have to worry about China's security issues. On the other hand, a more practical consideration for Taiwanese manufacturers is to save a shipping fee.

Therefore, the Ministry of Economic Affairs started discussions with the Ministry of Finance, and they discussed for one or two years to eliminate the tax problem and achieve a balance between tax system and financial balance, reasonable maintenance, and economic development, and finally overcome the tax system problem. Later, it is known to everyone that Huida Logistics Center, R&D Center, and Overseas Headquarters successively settled in Taiwan.

Many officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and industry insiders involved in the investment cases of major technology companies have pointed out that such a complete supply chain may not be found elsewhere except in Taiwan. After successfully recruiting Huida, AMD will also cooperate with TSMC and invest in Taiwan, achieving the effect of international technology companies coming to Taiwan to gather. This is also an "economic strategy."

At that time, Qiu Qiuhui, director of the Industrial Technology Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (now the director of the Industrial Development Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs), pointed out that relying on Huida's advantage in investing in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs continued to pursue the victory and attracted Micron high-bandwidth memory, which Taiwan was most in short supply, Synaptics and Yihua's EDA, Appliance Materials, ASML and Colin's equipment. Taiwan's semiconductors had become a complete cluster, and it could not be replaced by any country in the world.

The Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs was also awarded the "Outstanding Contribution Award" in 2024, which symbolizes the highest honor for public servants. The name of the award is "Leading Taiwan-Introducing major international manufacturers to set up R&D centers in Taiwan."